Description

Peacekeeping training centres play a crucial role in preparing peacekeepers for their deployment. However, despite their popularity within the international community as a tool for achieving international security, development, and state-building objectives, they have not received a great deal of analysis or academic attention. This book provides an in-depth analysis of peacekeeping training in Africa, tracing how centres have adapted to the operational and normative changes of peace operations over time and raising questions about the expectations attached to these training efforts and their impact.

The book examines training content and methods in detail, exploring the potential of peacekeeping training centres as sites for socialisation and diffusing international norms in an effort to change and shape peacekeepers' behaviour. The analysis is based on two contrasting case studies, selected to show the spectrum of training centres operating in Africa, namely the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) in Accra, Ghana, and the African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD) in Durban, South Africa.

At a time when impact is being determined by the number of course attendees, this book provides an important critical assessment of training efforts and what they are supposed to achieve. It will be of interest to scholars and practitioners within the fields of international security, peacekeeping, and African development.

Reviews

"Peacekeeping, peacekeeping training and liberal democratic state-building are part of contemporary international relations. Anne Flaspöler masterfully unpicks elements of this system by investigating peacekeeping training centres in South Africa and Ghana as units of norm transfer and socialization of people, concepts, approaches and strategies. Flaspöler’s conceptually rich study in deconstructing the unintended effects of peacekeeping training in Africa identifies tensions between ‘top-down’ assumptions and approaches to peacekeeping and the ‘bottom up’ realities of some of today’s conflicts and conflict management initiatives - as well as the way elements of these issues synergise in training packages, trainers and participants. In doing so this book questions conceptual foundations of peacekeeping training and peacebuilding interventions suggesting a re-think of current approaches and expectations - and should be required reading for all interested and involved in peacekeeping and the training of peacekeepers." — Marco Jowell, Research Associate, Centre for African Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, UK

"UN and African Union peacekeeping operations today are excruciatingly difficult - and will get more so. ‘Improved training’ has been offered up as the chief response to significant critiques of peacekeeping practices. Anne Flaspoeler shines a valuable bright light here on the actual conundrums facing peacekeeping training reformers." — Cynthia Enloe, Professor, Clark University, USA, author of Globalization and Militarism

"This book sheds a bright light on the important but under-studied area of peacekeeping training. Peace operations have unique requirements and this book helps elucidate the necessity for proper training and education. As Africa and the rest of the world comes to realize the special requirements for peacekeeping training, this book will help show the way." — Walter Dorn, Professor, Royal Military College & Canadian Forces College, Toronto, Canada

"An immensely original book, African Peacekeeping Training Centres provides a unique and clear-eyed analysis of how Africa prepares peacekeepers with the operational and managerial skills to work in increasingly complex environments and with a constantly widening mandate. I have rarely read a book which is likely to appeal to as wide a range of readers, from academics to practitioners, from students of peacekeeping and development to executive educators." — Khalid Koser, Professor of Conflict, Peace and Security, University of Maastricht, Netherlands and Executive Director, Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund, Geneva, Switzerland

About the Series

The series features innovative and original research on African development from scholars both within and outside of Africa. It particularly promotes comparative and interdisciplinary research targeted at a global readership.

In terms of theory and method, rather than basing itself on any one orthodoxy, the series draws broadly on the tool kit of the social sciences in general, emphasizing comparison, the analysis of the structure and processes, and the application of qualitative and quantitative methods.

The series welcomes submissions from established and junior authors on cutting-edge and high-level research on key topics that feature in global news and public debate. To submit proposals, please contact the Editor, Helena Hurd (Helena.Hurd@tandf.co.uk).